Posts tagged “martial arts”

I often come across with a lot of negative vibe when discussing world affairs or philosophical points. To be fair though, I do feel I try to offer solutions, even if they seem unlikely to ever be used. Here are ten things I think would drastically improve the direction of the United States in a way that would benefit everyone except for those that are doing more harm than good.

It is time for the people to put a few demands on the table for the well-being of all of us. It is time for us to quit following the patterns of behavior we have developed just because “it has always been that way”. I mean, how fucking stupid does a person have to be to sit there and say “I know this doesn’t work but we’ve always done it that way so we shouldn’t change.”

1. Make it illegal for members of Congress to own stocks of any kind.- So right off the bat I have extreme solution number one. Do not give me the song and dance about how they have the right to invest. These men and women are taking oaths to represent the people, then turn on them for financial gain at the expense of the very people who elected them. If you want to be wealthy as far as stocks go, if you want a massive portfolio of investments, go ahead…….but do it outside of Congress. The members of Congress, as well as the presidential choices we’ve had, have become so poor that we have forgotten that they work for us. They are more than compensated with six figure salaries and all their expenses and accommodations(which are usually fairly luxurious). The point is this…..it is time we forcibly restore honor to the position of representation. We do this by making the job of a politician more one of esteem for good deeds than as a conduit to massive wealth. Again, if you want to be super rich, have a massive investment portfolio, go right ahead. But for the good of all of us, you can’t do BOTH that and win a Senate seat. If you want to represent your fellow citizens, help improve your country, make the country’s future and the way it will affect your children a positive thing, then we will happily pay you well over $100,000 dollars along with great insurance, all work expenses paid and a great pension. You just can’t own any stock. This first change alone would have a drastic effect on the general level of accomplishment from our always bickering current Congress because we would have people in it for the nobility of it. Yes, the money would drive some of them still, a six figure salary is a lot of money over a lifetime, but when the decisions they make as far as government contracts, as far as regulation, as far as any kind of federal favoritism, there will be no conflict of interest clouding their decisions. Does that mean all their decisions will be great? Of course not but at least there will not be an obvious financial motivation.

2. Significantly reduce the size of the United Statesmilitary.- Calm Down! Sorry, that was for all the people who barely read that sentence and assumed I want either the downfall of the United States or for us to get invaded. Get real. The size of our military would be beyond massive even if you cut it in half. Tens of thousands of fighter jets, bombers, transports, tanks, transport trucks and tanks, all manner of land air and sea vehicles. Over 4,000 nuclear bombs…..4,000……..and enough aircraft carriers to conquer the world. Two dozen satellites…most countries have maybe a few at most, none that equal the technological advances of ours. Some people would tell you we need all these things to remain “safe” in the modern world. I would tell you those people are morons. We have so overbuilt our military that it almost seems like we almost have to be at war all the time to avoid having tens of thousands of pieces of equipment just gathering dust. Why? Why do we need a military large enough to easily defeat a force that does not exist? You want to keep a strong military that is fine but 700 billion dollars per year?? Wasteful, unnecessary and money spent on killing that could be instead spent on caring.

3. Start Taking The Integrity Of The Media Seriously.- There is no truth coming from our media sources. Like the corporations getting an unfair advantage, our media sources are owned by the people they do the vast majority of their reporting on. Being a journalist should be a position that is revered for its honesty, its lack of bias. Having a literal army of former party members still financially connected to the parties they are reporting on should be highly irregular, if not illegal. These people, the media sources, have a responsibility to the public to report facts yet the people doing the commentary, all former politicians, do exactly the opposite as they spin every story they can to their parties advantage as if they were still elected officials. This conflict of interest, along with many others, needs to be forcibly stopped by the people. It is time for us to put our feet down and use the power in numbers we have to DEMAND things like this change.

4. Get Religion Out Of The Government- Look, let’s be honest, religion is becoming a less and less serious part of the American way and that is only a problem if you believe the government should enforce religious views. Not everyone believes in God and even if they say they do, they often have different levels of commitment and styles of interpretation of scripture. While religion is an important part of many people’s lives, it is not a proven fact, a unified belief and therefore has no place in the operation of our government. The one thing about religion that no sane person can argue is that everything about it is about belief and with that being true, we cannot write laws to govern such things.Our government is not the Church, they are not there to enforce scripture on the people, many of who do not believe in said scripture. Abortion, Gay Marriage, prayer in school, none of these are issues that are to be solved through laws and government. Instead, it is up to each person to make their own decision and up to the rest of the people to stay out of their lives. It is also up to society to provide environments where a person’s personal beliefs are neither forced or restricted as long as they aren’t harming anyone else. Don’t like what you neighbor thinks about God? Then shutup and don’t worry about it because if you truly believe in what you say you do, it is up to your God to decide their fates.

5.Adjust the priorities of what we are spending tax dollars on- It is truly amazing what we spend our money on as far as taxes and government go in this country. To advance as a nation and as a people, we need to start putting the correct emphasis on what we use our tax dollars for. Spend money on education instead of war. Spend money on infrastructure instead of secret experimentation. We have enough defense to stop an invasion force larger than any on this planet so instead of continuing to build as if we are invaded on a daily basis, instead spend that money on the physical and mental well-being of the people. Recognize logic and instead of being afraid of offending this group or that one, do what common sense dictates. As far as social services go, make sure the money being given out is being used for what it is supposed to. If you are on welfare, unemployment, or any other kind of government entitlement then you are receiving enough help to be open to being drug tested to ensure that the money the rest of the taxpayers are giving you is not being spent so you can get high.

6. Make the intelligence and other agencies in our government more transparent and therefore moreaccountable.- Agencies like the CIA are out of control. There is no reason that these agencies need either the bloated budgets they have or the leeway to just operate as they see fit. The CIA has been spending your tax dollars on assassinating people, drugging American citizens, financing private wars with dictators that we later hunt down and kill, interfering with and influencing sovereign governments, trafficking drugs, trafficking weapons and any additional number of highly illegal activities. They are breaking the law on a regular basis and the scariest part of it is the acceptance of their behavior by our citizens. It is almost an accepted fact that the CIA had some level of involvement in assassinating JFK, trafficking weapons and drugs to the Mexican drug cartels and any number of horrific actions that would be considered “terrorism” if another agency outside this country did them. If that is the case then why isn’t it terrorism when the CIA does it?

7. Close military bases protecting other countries until we have a balancedbudget.- I have no problem with us helping other countries but until we have our own backyard in order, why should our money be protecting others while we struggle? We have built this country fighting our own battles and instead of losing American lives and American tax dollars protecting the borders of other countries, we should instead have those troops and those dollars doing things that will contribute positively to our economy and our own borders…..borders that have illegal immigrants pouring through them along with countless illegal drugs for years(some of them by the CIA, see #6).

8. Put crushing penalties on corporations and companies that send jobs out of the country.- Our jobs need to stay here. You want your company to make money in other countries? Then move there. The days of companies raking in huge profits off our people while paying people in other countries to produce what they are selling needs to end. Our country exists at a higher level than most and if we want to keep it that way, the jobs need to stay here. American products need to be produced by American people if we are going to regain the manufacturing prowess this country used to have. You want to employ Chinese people who you can pay half as much? THEN MOVE TO CHINA AND TAKE YOU COMPANY WITH YOU. Trust me, Americans will find a way to fill the void you leave with American made products by American employees being sold for American prices in the American economy.

9. Make acts of government corruption a one-strike, life imprisonment offense.- It is not possible to “accidentally” rip off the American people and as the citizens, and the OWNERS of this country, we need to demand the highest level of integrity from our leaders. You don’t think that penalty is fair? Then do not run for office because when you do and then you rip the people off, we all suffer so much, so many people are affected that there is no way you should not spend the rest of your life behind bars. There is no argument against this that holds any water and to argue against harsher penalties is to try to make an excuse for people to be doing things they KNOW are wrong. In the old, old days there was a thing called an angry mob and people feared them. Today, the leadership has done everything they can to legislate corruption right into the system and also allow chance after chance for these guys to commit crimes right out in the open and get only a slap on the wrist while regular citizens spend decades in jail for far lesser crimes.

10.SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING ABOUT HOSTESS!!!WE CANNOT LIVE WITHOUTTWINKIES!!!– Sorry I had to put one fun one in there…..:)

I haven’t posted in a while but wanted to explain why I fully and truly believe that casting a vote in tomorrow’s election is not only pointless, but is also a step towards continuing your servitude to a system that is broken, not working, and making everything worse for the average American. I have heard all the reasons to vote and I know this opinion is the minority one, but I hope you will take the time to read this post with an open mind and realize that I am not trying to convince you based on my opinion. Instead I will show you a mountain of evidence that shows, even to the most patriotic American, that not only is our system completely broken, but also doomed to continue to be that way as long as the current path of repair remains the same. Please feel free to comment if you think the facts I provide are not legitimate.

The dominance in numbers of the two controlling parties will make it nearly impossible for additional parties to ever gain a significant number of representatives any time in the next half century.Using the 2011-2012 numbers, in the United States Senate had 51 Democrats, 47 Republicans and 2 independents. So in over 200 hundred years, and especially the last 20 which has seen an up-rise in the number of third parties seeking election, all of 2 independents have managed to grab Senate seats. They are window dressing, pure and simple. The same thing goes for the House of Representatives where we see 240 Republicans, 197 Democrats and 4 vacant seats. Again, virtually no independent representation. My point is this; at the rate that parties outside the main two are gaining offices, it will literally take hundreds of years to see any of the parties other than the main two have any kind of leverage in our government. The parties in power have written rule after rule to ensure that while small offices may fall to the independents, they are the only offices that will fall. In a twist of pure genius, these few offices, having little chance to force any change, have the effect of placating the voters into thinking they are getting a choice when in fact, the deck is so stacked against them that the only thing they are truly getting is the illusion of their vote counting. I mean, what chance do they have? Their candidates are shut out of national debate by rules written by the very people they are trying to defeat.They have to fight tooth and nail in the court system to even have their candidate as a choice you are allowed to make. I mean, in a truly free election, shouldn’t every candidate be an option for your vote?

The corporate influence is so strong, and so connected to the current leadership that writes all the election rules, that they have an obvious level of control over who wins.Where to even begin on this one…..let me give you an example…..here is a list of the ten companies that are most heavily invested in by the members of Congress.

Exxon Mobil– Crushing the country with higher and higher fuel prices and making trillions in doing so. Why would the people in office invested in this company want to do anything to lower their profits or their prices? If they did, the elected official stands to lose money on his or her investment so how is this conflict of interest allowed??

AT&T– Telecommunications. Invested in by the government officials and therefore controlled by them. Again, if those who vote on decisions to allow a telecommunications company to do this or that are the telecommunications companies shareholders well then of course those shareholders are going to be as lenient and cooperative as they possibly can, even if it violates your civil liberties.

Wells Fargo–Received bailout money because they were deemed “too big to fail”. Well if the shareholders are members of Congress, and Congress decides whether to give them your money so that those same members of Congress don’t lose money on their stocks, how is that not a huge conflict of interest? In the case of the bailouts, what basically happened was a bunch of stockholders(members of Congress) saw that the companies they have millions of dollars invested in were about to fail, so they then use the law, written by people in their position, to force you to contribute tax dollars, whether you like it or not(you don’t pay, you go to jail under the laws written by previous men in their position) to save the companies and therefore ensure the success of their financial investments. You have become a legally bound financial backer to members of Congress!

Intel- Massive tech company that has countless government contracts. Those contracts are often approved by committees full of members of Congress who own stock in Intel! So, like AT%T, elected members of Congress slowly integrate these tech and communication into the government through all sorts of military and civilians contracts….contracts they decide on…..and of course they are going to give them to the companies that they own stock in.

Pfizer– Pharmaceutical company. During a time when healthcare is a huge issue, do you really think the people who own Pfizer stock(many members of Congress) are going to do all they can to lower drug costs when doing so would lower the overall value of their investments in the very same company?

Cisco-Same situation as Intel, AT&T, and Microsoft. All connected to our military and the operation of our government and when there are contracts, whether they are civilian or military, the members of the government who own these companies stocks are always going to do what makes them more money on their investments. Cisco is also largely intertwined with the news networks as well……news networks that have taken sides and whose rosters are filled with countless former officials still using propaganda to fight for their party of choice.

Bank of America-Another bank that made millions and millions acting horribly irresponsibly and when their incompetence looked like it might crush to company, its stockholders(members of Congress) voted to take your money to bail them out, therefore ensuring once again that their stocks value was acceptable to them.

Procter&Gamble-See my above comments on Pfizer……basically the same situation.

General Electric– Massive technological company. Integrated into communication, electronics, transportation and a variety of other areas giving the members of our government investment in basically every area of the infrastructure of the country.

Now you need to understand, I realize it may seem as if I am saying the members of Congress should not have the right to invest in companies but I am not. I am only pointing out the fact that a system that allows the situation I just explained to develop is one that is doomed to always benefit the few over the many. Additionally, it almost guarantees that the representatives elected by the people are going to have the interests of companies ahead of the interests of the people when the needs of the people should be, universally, always the top priority.

Conflict of interest is allowed in very few arenas, be it business, school, any organization of any type. If that is true, why would we allow such a thing in our government, something that forcibly affects us every single day? Pete Rose was one of the greatest baseball players of all time, has more hits than any man…ever…..yet he has been banished for life from baseball for betting on games when he was the team’s manager. He wasn’t trying to lose games, he was betting on his team to win. The reason this type of gambling is not allowed is because the bettor has inside influence on a competition that is supposed to be based on competition……ITS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST! If we wouldn’t allow that type of stuff in our professional sports leagues……leagues there to entertain us, nothing more, but we allow it in our government? Congress being invested in companies they are financially helping with your tax dollars as though you and the government is their own personal investment portfolio is not only a serious conflict of interest, but it is wholly immoral and possibly criminal. This behavior is the normal thing in our Congress, this is not just a few bad apples we are talking about, and with the moral fabric and motivations of these people being so poor, what hope does our system have of not getting worse and worse? I do not see how a person could categorize this whole scenario any other way.

You see, I am often labeled as defeatist but what is defeatist about the preceding information? It is nothing but a raw and truthful look at the truth of the government we live under and it is getting worse. When I say that all the third-party supporters say “only voting them out will change things” but that is not true. Am I to believe if by some act of God massive amounts of Libertarians and other third parties won a majority of the congressional seats there would suddenly be no more corporate influence? Or corruption? Of course there would be and that is because these positions attract only the wealthy and the powerful and ultimate power always corrupts ultimately.

Until we have a system of government that truly tries to represent the people, a system that is full of people more intense about spreading good than they are about gaining wealth, none of the elections will change a single thing. They will continue to placate those among us who have no independent train of thought as long as we have our treasures and material baubles to distract the majority of what has become an apathetic, pathetic, brainwashed society. Unfortunately, those at the top cannot bleed this country forever. There will come a point where it collapses under the weight of its own debt, its own ineptitude, and when it does the United States will be a shadow of what it once was and once could have been.

Human nature has already doomed the system. What hope does a society have that cares more about movie stars than teachers? About professional athletes than firemen?

Gary Johnson, a man with a better track record of success than either of the main candidates, got 1% of the vote. One percent…..pathetic…..don’t you people see that they(the people really pulling the strings) will never let your candidates outside of the main two parties have a fair shot??

Any system, be it a mechanical one, a mathematical one or whatever, if that system is broken then it is impossible to use the very system to fix itself. This is the problem that so many Americans have allowed themselves to be distracted from when considering the current state of our country. We have a broken system of government and all the citizens are arguing about which version of that broken system would be best used to fix the broken system. It is truly an exercise in lunacy if you look at it as it truly is.

Think about it like this. The Republicans and the Democrats have been running this country for countless decades, both of them. Back and forth they have switched control of the top office as well as Congress, but it an indisputable fact that they have been in control for well over a half century. Now knowing that the previous statement is one of absolute truth, the kind of truth that is as obvious as stating that water is wet, why would anyone think that the best people to solve the massive problems facing this country would be the Republicans and the Democrats?? They have been in control for decades and their policies and their solutions have led to these problems so why would they suddenly start working now???

To believe that these people and their beliefs, their solutions, their ideas, would cause problem after problem after problem after problem for decade after decade after decade after decade and then suddenly start working is unbelievably ludicrous!!!!!!!!! I have no better way to put it, no deeper way to enlighten any of you, that is just how it is.

Election after election after election, the people who made these problems, using their principles, keep convincing the general public that the principles that made all these problems and issues, will suddenly do something they have NEVER done before, that is fix the problems. There is no argument that can be made in defense of our current cycle of insanity, it is just so obviously true.

I will go on more about this but why bother? No amount of explanation can make my previous statements any more obvious, and if your argument against this position is saying the left or the right can solve the issues we have, then you need to take a long, hard look at yourself in the mirror. When you support either party, you are supporting ALL the failed policies, ALL the terrible decisions.

The two-party system that has taken over politics in this country is one where the followers of the two major parties basically ignore the fact that whichever party they support, they have been at LEAST half of the problem. The Democrats are one and the Republicans are the other. No matter which way you place the blame, they BOTH have some, and together they have been 100% of the problem in the continued downturn of this country FOR DECADES NOW. The party’s members are virtually all wealthy, all heavily invested in the biggest banks, corporations and insurance companies in the world. The party members, regardless of whether it is the Democrats or Republicans, truly have more of a vested interest in the corporations they are invested in than they do in HELPING YOU, THE VERY PEOPLE THEY REPRESENT. The problems that plague our society remain many of the same ones that are always a problem; healthcare, education, immigration, corporate corruption, abortion, the economy, all of these are the same problems that have been there for decades.

I mean, not one permanent solution? Not one? In what, like 30 years? If we cannot find permanent solutions to even one of the many major issue such as the economy, immigration, social security, Medicare and Medicaid, taxes, foreign policy……things that affect each of us in our daily lives, then is it fair to say that the model of society we have chosen in this country may be failing? Has it begun to become nothing more that a constant back and forth argument that is perpetual in its cycle?

I guess in the end, what I am saying is that there are mass amounts of facts that support the argument that our form of capitalism and representative government is a failure. This has nothing to do with freedom or liberty, other than the fact that the leaders of this country have taken some of yours. It has to do with a system we created proving time and time again that it does not work, plain and simple. Even worse, as it continues to decline, the people you have put in control are getting richer as the lower and middle class struggle. It is so obviously apparent, so illogical in the way the people who are struggling are the ones choosing those that make them struggle, that the only logical reason the struggling people would continue to support these two groups is either mass mental illness, or they are completely and utterly under the control of the most powerful individuals whether they realize it or not. Look in a mirror and tell me which one you are…..